3/10/2024 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

Boy, I miss the old days! 12.5%, this is dark fruited, lively, delicious. Drunk alongside a 1996 Ravenswood Old Hill. This had dark, cool toned Cabernet fruiti, between red cherry and black cherry, there was plenty of ripe and aged tobacco traits and some secondary forest floor things going on as well. This had some dark loam/earthy soil complexities. It drank so well… I miss the days when California top dogs were not over made! Love it.

3/10/2024 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

This was really nice. We drank this with a 1987 Groth, showing the boys so older California wines. This was dark red to black fruited. With the darkest cherry and cherry skin, and blackberry. It tame and wild at the same time, like a cultivated blackberry patch. (I like Beuker’s use of Brambly). There was earth, and some spice hints. Enjoyed with Flannery Jorges! I wish I would have bought more of these when I had the chance.

3/24/2024 - Charlie Carnes wrote:

This is lovely! It has black fruit, floral fruit, a hint of earthy soil, in a silky smooth delivery. Very nice!

3/24/2024 - Charlie Carnes wrote:

Fantastic again. I’m drinking these like they were gifts😅! Gotta slow down

4/14/2024 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

This was terrific! I enjoyed it with various friends and family for about three weeks. This was deep, and spicy, with a memories tickled of so many ancient things, living and dead. I love how fluid this wine was. There were thoughts of mulled spice cake, fruit cake, desserts cooked in various alcohols, cherries jubilee, bananas Foster, bourbon bread pudding, etc., etc. I had thoughts of an active antique store, sweet ripe tobacco, freshly ground coffee. I got a hint of sweet orange, too, which was cool.

3/24/2024 - Charlie Carnes wrote:

These are exceptionally delicious. Red fruit with tons of mineral perceptions and sharp angles in a cool kind of way. Plenty of soil and rocky complexities, adding maybe a little sweet pink grapefruit in the end!

3/24/2024 - Charlie Carnes wrote:

While this was a nice magnum of wine, it certainly was not worth the entry fee. It had citrus and mineral, sharp, and a maybe a tad short.

3/24/2024 - Charlie Carnes Does not like this wine:

Meh! Dark yellow, doesn’t have anything much left in the tank.

3/23/2024 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

Next to Krug rose. I like the Bara so much, and I am reminded of how much I like Rosé from Bouzy! Lightly of strawberry and and other red berry fruits. It’s light and airy, with dusty trail traits, and small bristling bubbles.

3/23/2024 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

Really tasty, I drank this next to a Paul Bara Grand Cru Rose. The Krug has a subtle oxidative feel, very much in check though. It’s rich and firm with dark red strawberries, and cherry skin. It has loads of mineral traits, and some pretty, active, popping bubbles! Very nice. I give the nod to the Bara, though, as a comparison.

3/24/2024 - Charlie Carnes wrote:

This is fine, decent C/S. It could possibly improve with some more cellar time.

3/24/2024 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

This was a most generous gift from Alfert, we shared! The 2018 was fantastic. Wide open, crisp, channeling colors in a miraculous way, with powdered lemon peel, stony mineral, limestone, more citrus. This was a crisp, I mean snapping crisp, but it had fleshy traits as well. So complicated, yet so easy going. This is terrific!

3/23/2024 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

This is a monumental Spätlese, and I do love Brücke!!
This comes across this is very high-level you, Kim, that is a little more fluid, a little less viscous in a very Positive way. There are myriad fruits, kaleidoscopic faceted minerals. I mean, there are forest, berries, and orchid fruits and stone fruits, minerals, and grass and flowers specifically flint and granite and gneiss. Has just such a terrific swallow mouthful, and stays with you for as long as an everlasting gobstopper!

3/23/2024 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

Aged in old Chablis barrels. I like it. It was full bodied, but quite light on its feet. Yellow fruited, with some flinty mineral.

3/23/2024 - Charlie Carnes wrote:

I have such a sweet spot for Bouzy rose! This is so perfect, sweet red fruit, mineral, dusty clay mountain trail, easy swallow, with thoughts of rose petal, citrus spray, warmed rocks. Really nice!

3/21/2024 - Charlie Carnes wrote:

I drank this on a cool, sunny evening. The cool crisp weather was a perfect foil for this lovely wine. I was reminded of dried orange peel, and crystallized powdered minerals. It was crisp, rich, full body, and lovely!

2/7/2024 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

I really liked this wine, drunk over a two day period.

As my cellar is beginning to mature I am finally able to pull some bottles with a little age on them. With that said, 2005 are always so young, and pulled with trepidation, and generally villages. This lovely wine started with some of that single eyebrow raising 2005ness… but really settled in with some lovely, red Volnay fruit, consisting of red berry bush fruit, with some iron traits, and a whiff of clay dust. The wine drank very well, it had power, and edginess, with an excellent feel. It was bright, shiny, with plenty of fresh crunchiness. I really liked it!

3/21/2024 - Charlie Carnes Does not like this wine:

Super nutty and sour, over the hill.

3/19/2024 - Charlie Carnes wrote:

Modern, but brightly red fruited, perfumed, large, but not ott. Julie likes.

2/19/2024 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

This is a great wine! The acid and sweetness have such balance. Myriad fruit, flower, and, mineral traits show, many times all at once.

2/20/2024 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

I opened two, because the first one was shot. Second was quite nice. No decant. It was dark, with fruit on the black side. It was pretty tasty, with a sweet core to the fruit, plenty of structure, and a goodly amount of gingerbread/Christmas spice, complexity. I believe it will age very well.

2/7/2024 - Charlie Carnes wrote:

This is good, maybe not stellar… There are plenty of Spätlese things going on here. The fruits are myriad, but maybe toward the sweet Fruit Loop breakfast cereal bent. It’s decent, it’s sweetish, with a hint of petrol.

1/27/2024 - Charlie Carnes wrote:

Good Auslese, tons of orange/tangerine, sweet grapefruit, with gobs of liquified flint mineral, and sweet hay. Very nice.

2/1/2024 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

This was very nice… and I was a little concerned at first. It started quite lemony, tart, almost too much so. I let it get some air, and wow. It really popped, the lemon relaxed, mineral traits crept in, bracing and balancing. This ended up with lovely, lemon pie with crust, loads of mineral traits, and some pretty floral components. Went great with Mrs Duvall's crab cakes!

11/23/2023 - Charlie Carnes wrote:

This is ok! It seems as if the fruit will never really show up. It quite consumable, I just don’t think it ever going to wow. It’s kind of proper and harsh at the same time if that makes any sense.

1/25/2024 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

This is a super tasty BerserkerDay deal from last year. This has dark red and black cherry, there is a spicy/savory quality to this. It’s grippy, dense, but with plenty of lift fairly nimble. I detect dark acid soil, and a hint of bay leaf. Very nice.

11/23/2023 - Charlie Carnes Does not like this wine:

This was shrill and fizzy. Acid through the roof. I see a few other bad bottles. That sucks because I love this; it’s usually one of the best Bojo’s every year…

10/9/2023 - Charlie Carnes wrote:

Meeze birthday present. 1 of 12

1/15/2024 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

These are so satisfying. Time to re-up BerserkerDay!!!!

1/15/2024 - Charlie Carnes wrote:

Gift from Gages friend, Quinton! Pretty cool. Wine is plush, modern, with plenty of acid.

1/1/2024 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

-Light in color and body
-Plenty of tart, juicy red fruit
-some mineral soil
This is a tasty, delicious, food friendly wine, I highly recommend.

6/30/2023 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

Troy tailgate. Superfine as always!

1/6/2024 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

Briefly… fantastic, rich and inviting, pure fruit, mineral.

1/7/2024 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

Pretty good. Showing a Marguet signature, and needing a slight delay/palate adjustment, following Roederer 242, this is quite nice. Perky, and tart, with Chardonnay fruit, and a lovely green streak running through it, it’s quite tasty. There is a nice mix of white pear, tart citrus, candy filling, maybe some fresh mown green grass, and a hint of florals. I also picked up some flinty mineral.

1/3/2024 - Charlie Carnes wrote:

This 22 year old Auslese Trocken was in a perfect spot. It’s steely, slate-like mineral slathered fruit was shining. I got citrus, and ripe grapefruit, pear; it was long, and complex, but really let go as it was drunk. There were pretty florals as well. This was a terrific food wine!

12/28/2023 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

Dang, channeling Julian Haart a tad. Lovely grapefruit, tangerine, mineral. This is a fruit and acid driven wine, easy and complex at the same time. It’s worthy of the auction sticker, to be sure!

12/25/2023 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

I can’t believe how good these are and at the same time how inexpensive they are. Dr. Stein makes the most perfect Trockens, if you ask me. This wine is bright and it exudes flint in solid liquid and maybe even gaseous form. It seems to envelop the fruit. The fruit comes out like ripe dull grapefruit, white peach, mid-sweet orange, completely surrounded by flint. I get a hint of an aromatic nut, like pistachio or almond, some flower petals, and ever so slight hint of petrol, and more hard rocks like granite or gneiss.

12/31/2023 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

Really nice. Bright, very bright, red cherry fruit, aromas of cherry, and a hint of dusty clay, plenty of acid, perky. I do get a sense of acid coming through, but it’s a 2008… This seems like it will make it a decent while longer, though not a long term ager. Drink them up..

12/25/2023 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

Well, it’s nice to be wrong sometimes, specially when it’s to your benefit! I have waned on these wines a little bit, as I’ve had to mix results… I pulled this with low expectations, boy was I surprised! This has a perfect trocken presentation, in a sense were it dulls a little bit, gains a flinty ever so slight pistachio trait, while still retaining its acidity, plenty of fruit, and begged you to drink more. I love when trocken wines are on. I also get some traits of dried flowers, flint reduction, and almost an aged Burgundy texture. Truly a nice Riesling from Van Volxem.

12/25/2023 - Charlie Carnes Does not like this wine:

Man, I want to like this wine, as my buddy FMIII likes it. I just cannot get it down, even after the second day. It’s harsh, and austere. I could maybe say it’s fragile, as many Margie’s from this time have been all over the place.

12/25/2023 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

Haut Brion really crushed the 1980s. The 1988 might be one of the tops for the vintage. 1988, sometimes, can be a little too green and bell peppery for me. This wine is far from that. It has the HB signature deep, dark, red velvet. There are red and black cherries, with gobs of soil, dark, loamy, soil, the kind one finds in the mountains. The greenness from the vintage shows here as dog fennel and mown fields of mixed grasses, which is perfectly acceptable to me. I gather mineral traits, and plenty of holiday spice. It’s amazing how I perceive texture from this bottle; I think, ‘Only HB has that texture!’ I get the gravel, baking spice, and dark soil of LMHB, but with the added velvet texture. It’s truly terrific.

12/29/2023 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

On par with other vintages, which is to say, terrific! It’s bright, tart, citrusy, charming, with mineral, crushed rocks, and a flower petal.

12/25/2023 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

Well I drink a ton of champagne on Christmas with my entire family. Late in the evening this bottle was still on ice. My kids opened it and almost finished it before I had a sip. I grabbed Camille‘s class, took a sip and was wowed. Certainly no detail; but it was very bright, and inviting… That’s all I got! I’m glad I have two more because I can’t wait to try a bottle it’s been a little time with it!

12/22/2023 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

This was drunk pregaming for a family Berns night. Wow was this terrific. It began with a complex interplay between aromatic red and white fruit! It swelled with red and green apple, chocolate dust, cherry essence, maybe a pistachio extract thing.. it was so fresh, and inviting, riveting. I loved it.

8/24/2023 - Charlie Carnes wrote:

Classic Claret! Pretty red fruit, maybe a tad dry, with some dog fennel, soil. Very nice, the kind of Bordeaux one could drink with every meal. Channeling 1981 a little.

12/21/2023 - Charlie Carnes wrote:

The 2008 vintage is an absolute show stopper. Late December, on a cold day in Florida, she is singing! It seems there is a melange of white citrus, red pear, box of chocolates, tart apple, and sweet crystalline granite, that assault the senses all at once. The focus seems to carry me to the, is is white or is it red fruit dominated? It seems to be a tie, as the red apple peel and confectioner’s shop traits, spar with the green apple, pear, and sweet grapefruit. The myriad small traits give balance, complexity. This is a quintessential power without weight wine!

7/28/2023 - Charlie Carnes wrote:

This was so great! It’s amazing how this bottle had so much powerful fruit, with that drive that great Port wine can have without being sweet or heavy. I mean this had penetrating red and black cherry, sharp acid, wonderful old sweet tobacco, Christmas spice, and a very fluid approach. I just kept sipping and sniffing, sipping and sniffing!

12/19/2023 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

This was a lovely and tasty bottle of PN. Red and dark aromatic fruit, with mineral, soil components showing through. I did not get to spend a ton of time with this bottle, but it makes me want to order some more.

12/18/2023 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

I have been up and down with some younger versions of this wine, some reworked/recorked then some re-issued bottles havent been exciting. This red label, which was decanted in 2007, was absolutely super terrific! I was shocked by the perfect Barolo markers this has where it is a dark red but clear with pink edges. With rose petals crushed brick and remnants of fertilizer, tar, asphalt, awashed with cherries, and forest berries. This also had plenty of tertiary traits like age tobacco, antique furniture store, may have had some pretty baking spices as well. This was a perfect Barolo in a perfect place.

11/28/2023 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

This is easily one of the best roses I’ve had in a while. I promptly bought six more at the first sip basically. So, if you’ve ever seen shipwreck gold coins, they sometimes have their own patina, specific to the wreck. The SS brother Jonathan in particular gold coins that have been under a sea for a long time have a slight apricot gold color. I was handling one recently in this wine, had that color to me perfectly. This one definitely took it up a notch from the regular bottle of rose. It’s loaded with an air dryness where the fruits extracted in its perfect, shining. With rhubarb, desiccated, apricot, dried, apple skins, dusty, clay road, sweet granite, dried grapefruit. this was a delight to drink, who was playful and easy, but also super serious. It’s dead in the bull’s-eye of the flavor profile that works for me. Highly recommended.